There’s some interesting stuff in them links, Stan! Thanks for posting them. In response to the first link, can I say that I’m entirely unbothered by the use of “texted”? It has an immediacy lacking in “sent a text message to” and is evidence of language’s adaptability. “Funnest” is an abomination, though.
On an entirely unrelated note, I was reading a story by EF Benson (‘Negotium Perambulans”) last night and came across the word “benignant”, which I’d never seen before. It stands to reason that, as you have “malign” and “malignant”, you’d have “benign” and “benignant”, but the latter seems to have fallen out of use.

I’m not surprised, especially if it’s pronounced to rhyme with malignant. It’s a bit clunky and inelegant for what it’s supposed to describe, whereas malignant is wonderfully suited to its meaning (and has been extremely useful to horror writers for centuries now!).

Do you remember the context in which it was used? (Don’t go hunting if it’s not immediately available to memory or fingers!) In Fowler’s third edition Robert Burchfield gives the meanings “‘gracious, kindly (esp. to inferiors)’ (a benignant monarch), or ‘salutary, beneficial’ (the benignant authority of the new regime).”

It’s from EF Benson’s short story “Negotium Perambulans …”, about a noxious supernatural presence that assaults the inhabitants of a converted church in a small Cornish town. The exact line is: “The winter storms that batter the coast, the vernal spell of the spring, the hot, still summers, the season of rains and autumnal decay, have made a spell which, line by line, has been communicated to them, concerning the powers, evil and good, that rule the world, and manifest themselves in ways benignant or terrible . . .”
The full story can be found here: http://www.gordon-fernandes.com/hp-lovecraft/other_authors/negotiam.htm